Dragging the dog

(originally posted on December 3rd 2009)

I was met by an interesting sight as I left the office. An elderly man was “walking” a Lhasa Apso. However the dog just refused to budge and ended up being dragged. The battle between the rest of Europe and U.K. is similar. Now I have to state that by no means am I calling the U.K. a dog. Nicolas Sarkozy made a big mistake by hailing the appointment of Michael Barnier as a victory for the French European economic model and that they will be in control of the City. I have not been to the equivalent of the City in any other country except for America. There is no charm or beauty on wall street or the areas surrounding the site that previously held the World Trade Centre. The area is like a huge monolith. It does not have any character. You know it is there and hope it stays in place and does not come crashing on you. The City on the other hand is like a beautiful panther. Beautiful, full of mystery and most dangerous when injured. It may face extinction but it will go down fighting and there will be humans that will try their best to help its population grow. The Euro Zone are like poachers. They will try their best to kill the panthers off. However if they succeed well they are going to go out of a job. The City may get hurt especially if Darling introduces the 50% income tax on wealthy individuals. However I think the beneficiary of that will be Switzerland rather than Europe. When the dollar weakened, people shifted to Gold rather than the Euro or Pound. I support Gordon Brown for not being able to talk to Sarkozy due to his calendar being full. First Hienry pushes France into the world cup and denied Ireland the opportunity. Now Sarkozy has decreased the goodwill (Was there any left after France lost the 2012 Olympic bid?). You may try to drag a dog but be aware that the dog will be behind you and you have a good chance that the dog will take more than a nibble of your arse.